"A Tree Is A Tree Is A Tree" (or was...)

You've read about our latest project - "the Tree House". well now at this stage of creating the tree I start questioning the life of the tree. I mentioned we had a difficult time finding 12/4 cherry stock; now that we acquired the materials and Mike is assembling the main body, the tree is taking on a life of its own. I kept on asking "is it a tree yet?"to make the task MORE difficult. We wanted to incorporate a knot in thte trunk and behind the knot is a secret compartment. So now there is small compartment with a solid walnut door, organically knot-shaped with concealed hinges. When considering this tree I think back to the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird". In the movie Boo Radley hides treasures in a knot hole in the tree in front of his house, hoping that Jem and Scout would find them, which they did and kept them in a cigar box. Anyway the tree and knot are taking shape. Mike is mortising branches, and half lapping smaller branches which will extend out to hold oval, birdseye maple shelves. The tree will look like it is growing from the bench and rising to the beam and ceiling of the post and beam loft we designed. the bench it is rising out of will have a custom jigsaw puzzle inlaid in the top, personalized for the client. This is to occupy the grandchildren while they are visiting his tree house. Now that the tree is almost built I was wondering about the trees that gave up their lives to be reincarnated as a tree. Before I was asking "is it a tree yet?", now I'm asking "why are we building a tree, and why is it going to take over 120 hours to bring it to life. After chainsaws, grinders, chisels, sanders, planes, sandpaper and piles of cherry sawdust, we will all volunteer our hand in carving the final texture and details. Along with the main tree we are creating two small tree trunk rising from the floor with the limbs holding display shelves. Jerry DeSantis